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  • Oakland (city, California, United States)
    city, seat (1873) of Alameda county, west-central California, U.S. It lies on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay opposite San Francisco. The city site is located on a flat coastal plain that rises toward hills to the east that parallel the shoreline. Oakland has a mild, Mediterranean-type climate with warm sunny summers and cool winters ...
  • Oakland (Maryland, United States)
    town, seat (1872) of Garrett county, extreme western Maryland, U.S., in the Allegheny Mountains near the West Virginia border. Laid out in 1849, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad decided to build a rail line through the area, it became a popular tourist destination. Oakland remains at the centre of a resort and agricultural area. Trout fishing, hiking, boa...
  • Oakland Athletics (American baseball team)
    ...City (Missouri), Minneapolis, and Buffalo (New York) to Baltimore (the first of two American League teams to be called the Baltimore Orioles), Washington, D.C. (the Senators), Philadelphia (the Athletics), and Boston (the Red Stockings). American League teams also were established in Detroit, Michigan (the Tigers), and Milwaukee (the first of two teams to be named the Milwaukee Brewers),......
  • Oakland Raiders (American football team)
    The NFL’s other defeat in court benefited individual owners. In 1980 Al Davis, the managing general partner of the Oakland Raiders, successfully sued the NFL for not allowing him to move the Raiders to Los Angeles, where he expected to make considerably more money (after leaving in 1982, Davis returned the Raiders to Oakland in 1995). The freedom to move franchises without league approval g...
  • Oakland University (university, Rochester, Michigan, United States)
    The NFL’s other defeat in court benefited individual owners. In 1980 Al Davis, the managing general partner of the Oakland Raiders, successfully sued the NFL for not allowing him to move the Raiders to Los Angeles, where he expected to make considerably more money (after leaving in 1982, Davis returned the Raiders to Oakland in 1995). The freedom to move franchises without league approval g...
  • Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (coliseum, Oakland, California, United States)
    ...perimeter from which two layers of radial cables were tightly stretched to a small tension ring in the middle—the double layer of cables gave the roof stability against vertical movement. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (1967), by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, extended this system to 126 metres (420 feet) in diameter, but only a single layer of cables, stiffened by encasi...
  • oakleaf hydrangea (plant)
    ...hydrangea (H. paniculata ‘Grandiflora’), growing to a height of 9 m, is a common landscape hydrangea, with tapering flower clusters, opening white and fading to pink, then to bronze. Oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia), up to 2 m high, has white flower clusters and deep wine-red fall foliage. The climbing hydrangea (H. anomala petiolaris, or H. petiolaris...
  • Oakley, Annie (American markswoman)
    American markswoman who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, where she was often called “Little Sure Shot.”...
  • Oakley, Kenneth Page (English anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist)
    English physical anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist best known for his work in the relative dating of fossils by fluorine content....
  • Oakover River (river, Western Australia, Australia)
    river in northwestern Western Australia. It rises as the Oakover River in the Robertson Range, 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Marble Bar, and flows north. Midway in its course, it turns northwest to join the Nullagine River and becomes the De Grey. The seasonally intermittent stream, the principal tributaries of which are the Shaw and Coorgan rivers, enters the Indian Ocean at Breaker Inlet,......
  • Oaks (English horse race)
    one of the English Classic horse races (along with the Derby, Saint Leger, Two Thousand Guineas, and One Thousand Guineas), an event for three-year-old fillies, established in 1779, and run over a 1.5-mile (about 2,400-metre) course at Epsom Downs, Surrey, also the site of the Derby. The Oaks was named for the nearby residence of the 12th Earl of Derby, whose horse Bridget won the first running....
  • Oakville (Ontario, Canada)
    town, regional municipality of Halton, southeastern Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Toronto. Oakville is situated on Lake Ontario at the mouth of Oakville Creek. It was founded in 1830 by Colonel William K. Chisholm, who established shipbuilding yards there. It was originally incorporated in 1857, and in 1962 it amalgamated wi...
  • Oama (emperor of Japan)
    ...a written document that recounted the mythology and legendary history of Japan in a form biassed in favour of the clan concerned. These family documents were collected at the command of the emperor Temmu (672–686) and were used as basic materials for the compilation of the first national chronicles of Japan, the Koji-ki (712) and the Nihon shoki (720). The myths and legends...
  • Oamaru (New Zealand)
    town and port, southeastern South Island, New Zealand. Its name comes from a Maori term meaning “place of sheltered fire.” It was established as a grazing run in 1853. Situated on a small bay, the town began to improve its harbour in 1872. It is a commercial fishing centre and the chief port for the neighbouring coastal plain and the Waitaki River valley—are...
  • Oannes (Mesopotamian mythology)
    in Mesopotamian mythology, an amphibious being who taught mankind wisdom. Oannes, as described by the Babylonian priest Berosus, had the form of a fish but with the head of a man under his fish’s head and under his fish’s tail the feet of a man. In the daytime he came up to the seashore of the Persian Gulf and instructed mankind in writing, the arts, and the scienc...
  • OAO (satellites)
    any of a series of four unmanned U.S. scientific satellites developed to observe cosmic objects from above the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-1 was launched on April 8, 1966, but its power supply failed shortly after liftoff. OAO-2, launched Dec. 7, 1968, carried two large telescopes and a complement of spectrometers and other auxiliary devices. It weighed more than 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg), the he...
  • OAO-2 (satellites)
    any of a series of four unmanned U.S. scientific satellites developed to observe cosmic objects from above the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-1 was launched on April 8, 1966, but its power supply failed shortly after liftoff. OAO-2, launched Dec. 7, 1968, carried two large telescopes and a complement of spectrometers and other auxiliary devices. It weighed more than 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg), the he...
  • OAO-3 (satellites)
    any of a series of four unmanned U.S. scientific satellites developed to observe cosmic objects from above the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-1 was launched on April 8, 1966, but its power supply failed shortly after liftoff. OAO-2, launched Dec. 7, 1968, carried two large telescopes and a complement of spectrometers and other auxiliary devices. It weighed more than 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg), the he...
  • OAPEC (Arab organization)
    Arab organization formed in January 1968 to promote international economic cooperation within the petroleum industry. Chairmanship rotates annually; meetings occur twice yearly. Member countries include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. (Egypt’s membership was suspended in 1979, but it was readmitted in 1989. Tunisia ceas...
  • oar
    Oars and sails...
  • oarfish (fish)
    (species Regalecus glesne), large, long, sinuous fish of the family Regalecidae (order Lampridiformes), found throughout the tropics and subtropics in rather deep water. A ribbon-shaped fish, very thin from side to side, the oarfish may grow to a length of about 9 m (30.5 feet) and a weight of 300 kg (660 pounds). It is shiny silver in colour, with long, red, oarlike pelvic fins and a long...
  • Oaristos (work by Castro)
    Castro’s best-known collection of poetry, Oaristos (1890; “Intimate Chats”), launched Symbolism in Portugal. His Symbolism maintains the essential doctrines of the French theorists of the movement, in contrast with the nostalgic nationalism that characterized the poetry of his contemporaries in Portugal. Among his numerous published collections, the best known include.....
  • oarweed (alga species)
    Castro’s best-known collection of poetry, Oaristos (1890; “Intimate Chats”), launched Symbolism in Portugal. His Symbolism maintains the essential doctrines of the French theorists of the movement, in contrast with the nostalgic nationalism that characterized the poetry of his contemporaries in Portugal. Among his numerous published collections, the best known include.....
  • OAS (Algerian-French history)
    ...officer who sought to prevent Algeria from gaining independence from France. In 1961–62 he led an organization of right-wing extremists, the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS; Secret Army Organization), in a campaign of terror against the government of Charles de Gaulle in both France and Algeria before being captured, tried, and imprisoned....
  • OAS
    organization formed to promote economic, military, and cultural cooperation among its members, which include almost all of the independent states of the Western Hemisphere. (Cuba’s membership was suspended in 1962.) The OAS’s main goals are to prevent any outside state’s intervention in the Western Hemisphere and to maintain peace between the various states within the hemisphe...
  • Oaş (mountain range, Romania)
    ...offer some magnificent scenery. This portion of the Carpathians is bounded on the eastern side by a zone of softer flysch. For some 250 miles (400 km) on the western fringe, the volcanic ranges Oaș and Harghita, with a concentration of volcanic necks and cones, some with craters still preserved, lend character to the landscape. St. Ana Lake—the only crater lake in......
  • Oasis (British rock group)
    ...19, 1963Sheffield, Eng.) and had its biggest hit with the single Common People—but it was essentially about Oasis and Blur. What the two bands had in common was a belief in the classic guitar-based pop song with a sing-along chorus—and a love of fashionable s...
  • oasis (geological feature)
    fertile tract of land that occurs in a desert wherever a perennial supply of fresh water is available. Oases vary in size, ranging from about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) around small springs to vast areas of naturally watered or irrigated land. Underground water sources account for most oases; their springs and wells, some of them artesian, are supplied from sandstone aquifers whose intake areas may be ...
  • Oasis Club (casino, Florida, United States)
    ...cowboy and fought Indians and was briefly a miner before he turned to gambling, which became a lifelong passion. Before the turn of the century, he opened a gambling casino in Palm Beach, Fla., the Oasis Club, which became a favourite haunt of celebrities. His Embassy Club, also in Palm Beach, was patronized and respected by social and industrial leaders who wintered in Florida. Advised by his....
  • Oastler, Richard (British industrial reformer)
    industrial reformer known in the north of England as the “Factory King,” who from 1831 conducted a campaign for shorter working hours that was in part responsible for the Ten Hours Act of 1847....
  • Oaşului, Munţii (mountain range, Romania)
    ...offer some magnificent scenery. This portion of the Carpathians is bounded on the eastern side by a zone of softer flysch. For some 250 miles (400 km) on the western fringe, the volcanic ranges Oaș and Harghita, with a concentration of volcanic necks and cones, some with craters still preserved, lend character to the landscape. St. Ana Lake—the only crater lake in......
  • oat grass (plant)
    any of the perennial plants of two genera of grasses, Arrhenatherum and Danthonia (family Poaceae). Approximately six species of tall grasses, native to temperate Europe and Asia, constitute the genus Arrhenatherum. Tall oat grass (A. elatius), which has been introduced into various countries as a pasture grass, grows wild in many areas and is considered ...
  • oat plant (cereal)
    edible starchy grain of the oat plant (species Avena sativa), a cereal widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. The flowering and fruiting structure, or inflorescence, of the plant is made up of numerous branches bearing florets that produce the caryopsis, or one-seeded fruit....
  • oat-cell carcinoma (pathology)
    Small-cell carcinoma (SCLC), also called oat-cell carcinoma, is rarely found in people who have never smoked. It is characterized by cells that are small and round, oval, or shaped like oat grains. SCLC is the most aggressive type of lung cancer; because it tends to spread quickly before symptoms become apparent, the survival rate is very low....
  • Oates, Joyce Carol (American author)
    American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres. Particularly effective are her depictions of violence and evil in modern society....
  • Oates, L. E. G. (British explorer)
    ...and dog teams, using the Axel Heiberg Glacier route, arrived back at Framheim Station at Bay of Whales with little difficulty, Scott’s man-hauling polar party—Scott, E.A. Wilson, H.R. Bowers, L.E.G. Oates, and Edgar Evans—using the Beardmore Glacier route, perished on the Ross Ice Shelf....
  • Oates, Titus (English priest)
    renegade Anglican priest who fabricated the Popish Plot of 1678. Oates’s allegations that Roman Catholics were plotting to seize power caused a reign of terror in London and strengthened the anti-Catholic Whig Party....
  • oath (religious and secular promise)
    sacred or solemn voluntary promise usually involving the penalty of divine retribution for intentional falsity and often used in legal procedures. It is not certain that the oath was always considered a religious act; such ancient peoples as the Germanic tribes, Greeks, Romans, and Scythians swore by their swords or other weapons. These peoples, however, were actually invoking a symbol of the pow...
  • Oath of the Horatii (painting by David)
    ...appears to have been originally inspired by a Paris performance of Pierre Corneille’s Horace. The result, finally not based on any of the incidents in the play, was the Oath of the Horatii. The subject is the solemn moment, charged with stoicism and simple courage, when the three Horatii brothers face their father and offer their lives to assure victory...
  • Oath of the Tennis Court (sketch by David)
    ...carried out: one of these is the unfinished Joseph Bara, which is a tribute to a drummer boy shot by the royalists, and another is the sketched Oath of the Tennis Court, which was to commemorate the moment in 1789 when the Third Estate (the commoners) swore not to disband until a new constitution had been adopted. The ......
  • oatmeal (cereal)
    Some breakfast cereals require cooking; others are packaged ready-to-eat. Roasted and rolled oatmeal, eaten as porridge, requires brief boiling. Cooking time of these processed cereals has been greatly reduced, and various “instant” forms are available....
  • oats (grain)
    edible starchy grain of the oat plant (species Avena sativa), a cereal widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. The flowering and fruiting structure, or inflorescence, of the plant is made up of numerous branches bearing florets that produce the caryopsis, or one-seeded fruit....
  • OATUU (international labour organization)
    labour organization founded in 1973 at Addis Ababa, Eth., on the initiative of the Organization of African Unity and replacing the former All-African Trade Union Federation (AATUF; founded in 1961) and the African Trade Union Confederation (ATUC; founded in 1962). The ATUC from its founding had encouraged member affiliation with other international union organizations, while the more militant AATU...
  • OAU (intergovernmental organization, Africa)
    intergovernmental organization, established in 2002, to promote unity and solidarity of African states, to spur economic development, and to promote international cooperation. The African Union (AU) replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU’s headquarters are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia....
  • Oaxaca (state, Mexico)
    estado (state), southern Mexico. It is bounded by the states of Puebla and Veracruz to the north and Chiapas to the east, by the Pacific Ocean to the south, and by the state of Guerrero to the west. The city of Oaxaca (Oaxaca de Juárez) is...
  • Oaxaca (Mexico)
    city, capital of Oaxaca estado (state), southern Mexico, lying in the fertile Oaxaca Valley, 5,085 feet (1,550 metres) above sea level. The city site, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, was important to numerous pre-Columbian civilizations, as evidenced by the Zapotec ruins at Monte Albán, lying adja...
  • Oaxaca Basin (valley, Mexico)
    ...farmers. Farther northeast is the Mesa del Sur, with numerous stream-eroded ridges and small isolated valleys some 4,000–5,000 feet (1,200–1,500 metres) above sea level. The picturesque Oaxaca Valley is the largest and most densely settled of these, with a predominantly indigenous population. It is one of the poorest areas of Mexico....
  • Oaxaca, Benito Juárez Autonomous University of (university, Oaxaca, Mexico)
    Oaxaca was the home of two of Mexico’s most famous presidents, Porfirio Díaz and Benito Juárez (a Zapotec from the nearby village of Guelatao). The Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca was founded there in 1827 (university status 1955), and the Regional Museum of Oaxaca (1933) exhibits the world-renowned treasures from Tomb No. 7 at Monte Albán. The colo...
  • Oaxaca de Juárez (Mexico)
    city, capital of Oaxaca estado (state), southern Mexico, lying in the fertile Oaxaca Valley, 5,085 feet (1,550 metres) above sea level. The city site, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, was important to numerous pre-Columbian civilizations, as evidenced by the Zapotec ruins at Monte Albán, lying adja...
  • ob (gene)
    In the 1990s research with genetically obese laboratory animals led to the discovery of the ob gene in mice and humans. Under the direction of this gene, adipose (fat) tissue cells secrete leptin, a protein hormone. When fat stores increase, leptin sends a signal to the hypothalamus (a regulatory centre in the brain) that stimulates one to eat less and expend more energy.......
  • OB Association (astronomy)
    The chief distinguishing feature of the members of a stellar association is that the large majority of constituent stars have similar physical characteristics. An OB association consists of many hot, blue giant stars, spectral classes O and B, and a relatively small number of other objects. A T association consists of cooler dwarf stars, many of which exhibit irregular variations in brightness.......
  • Ob, Gulf of (gulf, Russia)
    large inlet of the Kara Sea indenting northwestern Siberia, between the peninsulas of Yamal and Gyda, in north-central Russia. The gulf forms the outlet for the Ob River, the delta of which is choked by a huge sandbar. The gulf is about 500 miles (800 km) in length and has a breadth varying between 20 and 60 miles (32 and 97 km). The depth of the sea at this point is 33–40 feet (10–1...
  • Ob man gemach faren soll (work by Carlstadt)
    ...was promptly expelled from Saxony, but not before he published a series of tracts asserting the belief in the symbolic presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Carlstadt’s work Ob man gemach faren soll (1524; “Shall We Go Slowly?”) was eagerly read by all those for whom reform came too slowly. Luther, nevertheless, provided refuge for Carlstadt in......
  • Ob River (river, Russia)
    river of central Russia. One of the greatest rivers of Asia, the Ob flows north and west across western Siberia in a twisting diagonal from its sources in the Altai Mountains to its outlet through the Gulf of Ob into the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is a major transportation artery, crossing territor...
  • Ob River Basin (river basin, Asia)
    western Siberian peoples, living mainly in the Ob River basin of central Russia. They each speak an Ob-Ugric language of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages. Together they numbered some 30,000 in the late 20th century. They are descended from people from the south Ural steppe who moved into this region about the middle of the 1st millennium ad....
  • Ob River Basin Culture (archaeology)
    ...Siberian culture on one hand and with the Aral Sea region on the other. Throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age times, two cultural branches were evident: the middle Ural (or Shigir) and that of the Ob River basin. During the 3rd and 2nd millennia bc the culture of the middle Ural region is famous for its elk and water-bird sculptures portrayed in wood, found in the peat bogs of G...
  • Ob-Ugrian (people)
    ...subsequent Tatar domination in eastern Russia (1236–1552) gave added significance to the Arab–Islāmic tradition. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Volga Finns, the Permians, the Ob Ugrians, and the Nenets finally came under the domination of Moscow; before this, Orthodox missionaries had worked, for example, among the Komi (St. Stephen, 14th century) and the Baltic Finns....
  • Ob-Ugric languages
    division of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, comprising the Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) languages; they are most closely related to Hungarian, with which they make up the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. The Ob-Ugric languages are spoken in the region of the Ob and Irtysh rivers in central Russia. They had no written tradition or litera...
  • Oba (island, Vanuatu)
    volcanic island of Vanuatu, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, 30 miles (50 km) east of Espiritu Santo. With an area of 154 square miles (399 square km), the island is dominated by Manaro, a 4,907-foot (1,496-metre) volcanic peak with three lakes in its caldera. Aoba’s landscape inspired James Michener (who served as a naval historian...
  • oba (sacred king)
    At the crowning of an oba (king) in Yorubaland, for example, the ruler leads a procession through the town as he dances with upright carriage and dignified step, his gestures dictated by the nature of his kingly role and the insignia he carries. His wives follow, interpreting the rhythms in a style suitable to their rank, inclining forward from the waist with their attention respectfully......
  • Oba Koso (work by Ladipo)
    ...interests. In 1962 he founded the Mbari Mbayo Club, and for its inauguration his new theatre company performed his first opera, Oba Moro (“Ghost-Catcher King”). He premiered Oba Koso (“The King Did Not Hang”) at the club’s first anniversary in 1963 and a year later introduced Oba Waja (“The King is Dead”). All three operas ar...
  • Obadiah (Old Testament prophet)
    The Book of Obadiah, the fourth book of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets, contains only 21 verses. Nothing is known about the prophet as a person or about his times. It may have been written before the Exile, though many scholars believe that it was composed either some time after 586 bce or in the mid-5th century, when the Jews returned to the area around Jerusalem. The prophet concentra...
  • Obadiah, Book of (Old Testament)
    the fourth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, in the Jewish canon treated as one book, The Twelve. Obadiah, with only one chapter consisting of 21 verses, is the shortest of all Old Testament books and purports to be a record of “the vision of Obadiah.” Nothing is known of the prophet except for his name, which means “servant of Yahweh....
  • Obadiah of Bertinoro (Italian rabbi and author)
    Italian rabbinic author whose commentary on the Mishnah (the codification of Jewish Oral Law), incorporating literal explanations from the medieval commentator Rashi and citing rulings from the philosopher Moses Maimonides, is a standard work of Jewish literature and since its first printing in 1548 has been published in almost every edition of the Mishnah....
  • Obafemi Awolowo University (university, Ile-Ife, Nigeria)
    Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) was founded in 1961. One of Nigeria’s major universities, it is located north of the town; it operates a teaching hospital and has a major library. The affiliated Institute of Agricultural Research and Training operates the Moor Plantation for agricultural research and has the country’s largest specialized agricultural libra...
  • Obaid, Thoraya (Saudi Arabian UN official)
    On Jan. 1, 2001, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the first Saudi national to head a UN agency. The UNFPA, the largest internationally funded source of population assistance, actively promoted equality between the sexes and universal education and health care, especially better reproductive health care for women. Its campaigns to b...
  • Obaid, Thoraya Ahmed (Saudi Arabian UN official)
    On Jan. 1, 2001, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the first Saudi national to head a UN agency. The UNFPA, the largest internationally funded source of population assistance, actively promoted equality between the sexes and universal education and health care, especially better reproductive health care for women. Its campaigns to b...
  • O’Bail, John (Seneca leader)
    Seneca Indian leader who aided white expansion into Indian territory in the eastern United States....
  • Ōbaku (Zen Buddhism)
    one of the three Zen sects in Japan, founded in 1654 by the Chinese priest Yin-yüan (Japanese Ingen); it continues to preserve elements of the Chinese tradition in its architecture, religious ceremonies, and teachings. Although the methods of achieving sudden insight as developed by the Rinzai sect are practiced by Ōbaku monks, invocation of the name of the Buddha Amida (nembutsu...
  • Obama, Barack (president-elect of the United States)
    American politician who on Nov. 4, 2008, was elected the 44th president of the United States, defeating Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate. Obama was the first African American elected to that office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (2005–08). He was the third African Americ...
  • Obama, Barack Hussein, Jr. (president-elect of the United States)
    American politician who on Nov. 4, 2008, was elected the 44th president of the United States, defeating Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate. Obama was the first African American elected to that office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (2005–08). He was the third African Americ...
  • Obama/Biden (United States government)
    On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, is set to become, when he is inaugurated January 20, 2009, the country’s first African American president. He also was to become the first sitting U.S. senator to win electio...
  • Obama, Michelle (American attorney and administrator)
    American attorney and university administrator and the wife of Barack Obama, Democratic U.S. senator who became president-elect of the United States in 2008....
  • Obama vs. McCain (United States government)
    On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, is set to become, when he is inaugurated January 20, 2009, the country’s first African American president. He also was to become the first sitting U.S. senator to win electio...
  • ōban (coin)
    ...coins. Unlike China, Japan has had a gold and silver coinage since the 16th century. The gold coins are large flat pieces in the shape of rectangles with rounded corners, the largest size being ōban and the smaller koban. Other gold pieces are the small rectangular pieces of one and two bu issued from time to time; round gold is rare and usually of provincial mints.....
  • Obando, José María (president of Colombia)
    Colombian president (1853–54), whose violent character and career were representative of the political and military leaders of 19th-century Colombia....
  • O’Bannion, Charles Dion (American gangster)
    bootlegger of the early 1920s, boss of the most feared Chicago gang next to that of his arch rivals, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone....
  • O’Bannion, Dion (American gangster)
    bootlegger of the early 1920s, boss of the most feared Chicago gang next to that of his arch rivals, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone....
  • Obasan (work by Kogawa)
    Asian Canadian writing has emerged as a powerful and innovative force. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan (1981) is a skillful “docufiction” describing the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II; in Chorus of Mushrooms (1994), Hiromi Goto examines the relations between three generations of women in rural Alberta. Chinese Canadian perspectives are prese...
  • Obasanjo, Olusegun (president of Nigeria)
    Nigerian general, politician, and diplomat, who was the first military leader in Africa to hand over power to civilian rule. He served as ruler of Nigeria (1976–79) and as president (1999–2007)....
  • Obbern, Guillaume d’ (French noble)
    Norman soldier and lord, one of William the Conqueror’s closest supporters....
  • obbligato (music)
    (Italian: “obligatory”), in music, essential but subordinate instrumental part. For example, in an 18th-century aria with trumpet obbligato, the trumpet part, although serving as accompaniment to the voice, may be as brilliant in its writing as that of the voice itself. The term obbligato accompaniment has a more specialized meaning in some 18th-century music (see ac...
  • “Obchod na korze” (film by Kadár and Klos [1965])
    ...which won first prize at the Moscow Film Festival; Obžlovaný (1964; The Accused, or The Defendant); and Obchod na korze (1965; U.S. title, The Shop on Main Street; U.K. title, The Shop on High Street), the drama of an ordinary Czechoslovak citizen who is confronted with a personal moral decision regarding the Nazi persecution......
  • Obdorsk (Russia)
    city and administrative centre of Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrug (district), Tyumen oblast (province), Russia, in northwestern Siberia. It lies on the Poluy River at its entrance to the Ob River....
  • obduction (geophysics)
    As subduction leads to contraction of an ocean, elevated regions within the ocean basin such as linear island chains, oceanic ridges, and small crustal fragments (such as Madagascar or Japan), known as terranes, are transported toward the subduction zone, where they are scraped off the descending plate and added—accreted—to the continental margin. Since the Late Devonian and Early......
  • obeah (West African folklore)
    in west African folklore, a gigantic animal that steals into villages and kidnaps girls on the behalf of witches. In certain cultures of the Caribbean, the term denotes forms of sorcery and witchcraft, usually overpowering and extremely evil. Potent or bewitched objects buried for the purpose of bringing misfortune upon a particular party are sometimes known as obia, and use of the word itself has...
  • obedience (religion)
    ...second of the biblical passages that form the core of this liturgical statement (Deuteronomy 11:13–21). Here, in the language of its agricultural setting, the community is promised reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience. The intention of the passage is clear: obedience is rewarded by the preservation of order, so that the community and its members find wholeness in life;......
  • obedience plant (plant)
    The related false dragonheads, or obedient plants (Physostegia; see photograph), with 12 species are native to North America. The best known is P. virginiana, which has large, pink, bell-like flowers on slender spikes....
  • obedient plant (plant)
    The related false dragonheads, or obedient plants (Physostegia; see photograph), with 12 species are native to North America. The best known is P. virginiana, which has large, pink, bell-like flowers on slender spikes....
  • O’Beel, John (Seneca leader)
    Seneca Indian leader who aided white expansion into Indian territory in the eastern United States....
  • Obeid, el- (The Sudan)
    town, central Sudan. It lies on a sandy, scrub-covered plateau at an elevation of 1,869 feet (570 metres). Founded by the Egyptians in 1821, the town was captured and largely destroyed by the Mahdist forces in 1882, but it was rebuilt after Kurdufān was federated with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1899. Al-Ubayyiḍ is encircled by a forest reserve that tends to allevi...
  • Obelerio (doge of Venice)
    ...strife among various settlements vying for supremacy and between pro- and anti-Byzantine factions; also involved were attempts by church authorities to acquire temporal influence. Finally the doge Obelerio and his brother Beato formed an alliance with the Franks of Italy and placed Venice under the authority of the Italian king Pippin (died 810) in order to free themselves from Byzantine......
  • Obelia (invertebrate)
    genus of invertebrate marine animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The genus, widely distributed in all the oceans, is represented by many species. The animal begins life as a polyp—a stalklike form attached to the ocean bottom or some other solid surface. The polyp produces medusae, or jellyfish, which in turn, produce polyps. Rootlike filaments sent out by the polyp serve as o...
  • obelisk (pillar)
    tapered monolithic pillar, originally erected in pairs at the entrances of ancient Egyptian temples. The Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, usually red granite from the quarries at Aswān. It was designed to be wider at its square or rectangular base than at its pyramidal top, which was often covered with an alloy of gold and silver called electrum. All four sides of ...
  • Oberammergau (Germany)
    The most famous of the Passion plays to survive into the 20th century is that performed at Oberammergau, in the Bavarian Alps. According to tradition, the play has been presented every 10 years since 1634, in fulfillment of a vow made after the village was spared an epidemic of plague (shifting to decennial years in 1700), except in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and World War II, when......
  • Oberbund (Swiss history)
    The Gotteshausbund (“League of the House of God”), founded in 1367 to stem the bishop’s rising power, was followed in 1395 by the Oberbund, or Grauerbund (“Gray League”) of the Upper Rhine Valley. The use of the word gray (German grau, French gris, Romansh grisch) in this context derived from the homespun gray cloth worn by the men and gave r...
  • oberek (dance)
    ...Chopin (1810–49) reflects the dance’s popularity in his day. The varsoviana is a 19th-century couple dance that evolved from a simple mazurka step. The smooth kujawiak and the energetic oberek are Polish dances that are closely related to the mazurka....
  • Oberharz (region, Germany)
    ...intersected by narrow, deep valleys. The Brocken (3,747 feet [1,142 m]) and Viktorshöhe (1,909 feet [582 m]) are of granite. The northwestern and higher third of the highland is known as the Oberharz; the southeastern and more extensive part is the Unterharz. The Brocken group, dividing the two, is generally considered a part of the Oberharz....
  • Oberhausen (Germany)
    ...intersected by narrow, deep valleys. The Brocken (3,747 feet [1,142 m]) and Viktorshöhe (1,909 feet [582 m]) are of granite. The northwestern and higher third of the highland is known as the Oberharz; the southeastern and more extensive part is the Unterharz. The Brocken group, dividing the two, is generally considered a part of the Oberharz.......
  • Oberhof, Der (work by Immermann)
    dramatist and novelist whose works included two forerunners in German literary history: Die Epigonen as a novel of the contemporary social scene and Der Oberhof as a realistic story of village life....
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